In 2014, a tragic and horrific incident shed light on the NFL’s insensitivity towards women. On February 14^th, Ray Rice, a star running back for the Baltimore Ravens, viciously assaulted his fiancé in an elevator after a disagreement. The NFL took little to no action until they were forced to react after a video showing the Rice’s brutal actions caused outrage. This media coverage led to heavy scrutiny of the way the NFL treats its female employees and fans. The fact that the NFL failed to take appropriate action highlighted the “historic and systematic mechanisms of oppression facilitated through hegemonic ideologies of masculinity, femininity, race and class” (Van Gyn). Because of the hyper masculine culture of the organization, the NFL did not comprehend how heinous Rice’s acts truly were and did not respond accordingly, which in turn showed its devaluing of feminism and equality. The NFL directly responded to this harsh and warranted scrutiny by creating the NFL Social Responsibility Committee, an all-female panel devoted to improving the social culture of the NFL, and the NFL Women’s Summit, which aims to help women gain the knowledge and experience necessary to become a coach and executive. These two additions to the league were attempts to improve the NFL’s public relations with women, but also to end the extreme scrutiny the NFL received for failing to reprimand Ray Rice in an appropriate and timely manner. Many who attended this Women’s Summit believed the NFL was simply pandering to the media to stop the negative press it received, stating “The majority of NFL history suggests team owners and leadership see women as little more than things that need to be dealt with… [in addition,] they come up with domestic-violence policies that are, at best, ineffective and at worst put women in more danger because they’re really just PR devices” (Moskovitz). The NFL’s consistent trend reacting to these issues with women instead of being proactive and trying to solve its cultural issues shows they clearly only view women in terms of public relations. While the summit was clearly not a perfect event to bridge the gap between the NFL and its female following, it still served a strong purpose. The shortcomings of the event proved to the NFL that to truly gain the support of women and to promote equality, they must find an effective means of providing an inclusive environment for women.